Rage and rampage
The German authorities are still looking for whoever is responsible for the murderous rampage at the Berlin Christmas market, but one thing they know for sure: The attack is right out of the terrorist handbooks. Via the New Yorker.
Modern Berlin
The Christmas market where a dozen were killed and four dozen injured is set in a remarkable Berlin square where prewar Berlin, postwar Berlin and modern-day Berlin co-exist. Via the New York Times.
Refugee crisis
Can Angela Merkel and her refugee policy survive the Berlin terror attack? Via Foreign Policy.
Trump’s proxy
Senate Democrats see Trump’s secretary of state nominee, Rex Tillerson, as a proxy for Trump himself — and also for Trump’s Russia connections and his long list of conflicts of interest. Via the Washington Post.
Thanks, Obama
Obama is trying to head Trump off at the metaphorical pass — at least temporarily — by “permanently” banning oil drilling for millions of acres of ocean. Via the BBC.
Change of heart
The National Review seems to be coming around on Trump. Victor Davis Hanson writes not only that Trump is “cunning,” but that his candidacy has “recalibrated the nature of insight itself.“
Voter suppression
Did the new voter-ID laws passed in many states really hold down voting in minority communities? That’s what voting-rights advocates are trying to find out. Via the Los Angeles Times.
Then what?
It’s not just in Washington that they don’t seem to know what to do after repealing Obamacare. The voters who want it gone don’t seem to know what they want in its place, either. Via the Atlantic.
Hard to pinpoint
What makes the harrowing Ankara assassination photos so different from all the other pictures of death that we see? Via Vulture.
It’s a miserable life
It’s Christmas season, meaning you and the family will gather round the wide-screen hearth for yet another viewing of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” But one viewer wonders if the secret to the movie is just how miserable everyone is who actually has to live in Bedford Falls. Via the New York Times.
